transcribing Dock Boggs' "I Hope I Live A Few More Days" (see thread) the third line says: "I'll buy me a bottle of....[what sounds like Ethermotor Drops]. Can any of you splendid practitioners of this music who frequent Mudcat shed light on this stuff? It might help shed some light on the fourth line!yours, Peter T.

I have been doing some "ear" research as well as some paper research. There was a patent tuberculosis medicine called "Ethambutol"--although it doesn't sound like that is what he is saying which is more like what you say; but maybe it is a corruption of the same word.

Yes, Ethermotor Drops were used in olden times to put one's motor neurons to sleep and simulate a death state. Elvis is thought to have used these sparingly to get high, but one time he took a higher dose and was said, by some, to've died. He enjoyed the anonymity so much (after being dug up) that he had plastic surgery and now exists (if that's what you wanna call it) as Richard Simmons. But every so often he has the old urge to dress in gold lemay and sequins. This is the reason for so many Elvis sightings since he left this bitter orb.

"I haven't been able to possibly determine just what "Ethamotel" might be. It seems to have been some kind of patent medicine. There is a tuberculosis "remedy" known to have been used around Norton, Virginia called Ethambutol. Perhaps there is a connection."

I combined the "ethamotel" and "ether motor" threads. Listening to the song, I'd say he's certainly saying "ether motor drops," but I couldn't find out what they were. I did find a patent (click) for an ether motor. The Folkways recording notes say Dock's source for this song is someone from the Phillips family, who were relatives of his, about 1930. I couldn't find a Phillips family recording of this song. One Dock Boggs recording of this song I could find was on Folkways, and the cut first appeared on a 1970 recording called Dock Boggs Vol. 3.. The liner notes include handwritten lyrics by Dock Boggs, and it sure looks like "etha motel drops" in his handwriting.

"Ether" has been used as a motor starting fluid since the first automobiles, and in fact some of the earlier ones ran on "ether" rather than gasoline, prior to improved petro refining. It's possible that something like "ether-motor" was a trade name for a fuel or fuel additive that was popular, or at least commonly known, when the lyric was written(?).

The stuff used for starting and/or fuel line de-icing was (and where you find it still is) very corrosive, and will peel the paint off just about anything. It would certainly "take the smile off" a lost lover's face.

This is, of course wild-assed conjecture, as I have no evidence of that specific name, or anything similar, being significantly used or known at any time.